Mondain’s Legacy – Elf content.

Stygian Abyss – Gargoyle content.

High Seas – Fish and boat content.

Stratics Veteran

You may notice, under your account management page the window “Subscription Info” that gives you this long-long list of different additions and your status to each. If you’ve been playing a long time, you will see more and more qualifiers. Some you will recognize… some you may not. For example, as a 10 year vet… I started after Tram came, not wanting anything to do with the game before. I’ve been playing Ultima long before it was online.

As I understand it… the addition of T2A may have been the first addition to UO. Adding a land void of any new housing, vast amounts of nothing… a few new hunting areas, and yet PKs around every corner. Not exactly what I call “worth wild”. GRANTED, as a new player… under Tram rules, I found these lands extremely helpful to get away from dungeons and yet, room to run. If newer players got away from the bank and messing around with golems… they could still find the lands of T2A very helpful in skills and adventure right now!

For awhile, after the great house-lock-up of late 2001… it was rumored the staff would open up T2A for some house placement. We got the grand trailer park of Malas instead. Still, with AoS, I only loved the custom house system we got.

Frankly, I love the ML additions most. (Mondain’s Legacy) Elf content; clothes, craftables, house tiles, equipment, new monsters including the big dogs, new dungeons… all cool. Yet… this was the first addition with a new race! It was so popular, I was starting to think we would see more races. It took a long time to get gargoyles… and yuck. Some may love them, I don’t. Anything I like about that addition was already part of UO and comes loose in the Primeval Lich room. Those items I can find on vendors. No need to get murdered around every corner.

Easily, each addition has it's own pluses and negatives to any serious player. The hard work it takes from the programmers, artists, and others behind the game, easily can get forgotten.

I vote for Mondain’s Legacy as my favorite! still… that’s only my preference. I think it's totally wonderful we have all kinds of preferences for all kinds of people that share our game! So, I’m wondering what everyone feels is their favorite addition. Please vote… don’t sit and complain or bicker. That’s not helpful.

Stratics Veteran

The only addition I liked at all isn't on the list, T2A.. Pretty much the reasons you said you didn't like it are the reasons i did...Didn't look like a suburb, possible danger around every corner, vast wilderness to explore.

Everything else I pretty much hated, with a special hatred reserved for what AOS did to the item systems... and with a slight exception for High Seas, I would love high seas if the ammo wasn't incredibly expensive and hard to get, because piracy rules.

Stratics VeteranStratics Legend

I'd vote for T2A... what you didn't think was a "worth wild (sp)" expansion was, in every way, perhaps one of the most worthwhile expansions of the game. Yes, there are huge areas in it that to this day remain empty -- you sort of have to understand that one dev team intended to use that area for player housing, but shortly afterward, Raph Koster, lead designer of the UO, left for Star Wars Galaxies. The team that continued on after Raph and a few others left at the same time simply was either not coherent enough technically with the code that existed in testing, or just plain had different visions for the game. A lot of old rumor says that the new team simply couldn't overcome player housing on bumpy ground.

At any rate, above and beyond the huge spans of nothingness, there were plenty of things to do. The orc fort at the City of the Dead (may now be a savage fort on your particular shard), Ice, Fire, Cyclops Valley (now sometimes called Titan Valley), the Ophidian and Terathan Keeps, and so on. In fact, a lot of T2A felt "unfinished," but the beauty of T2A was that there was plenty of room to expand.

You sort of have to understand the dynamics of the world back then though... without a half dozen land masses on which to build houses, space was at a premium, and with few exceptions, there really weren't any ghost cities. Dungeons, no matter where they were, were fairly well used. This actually continued after the release of Trammel -- Trammel killed off player communities that had established themselves in Felucca, and killed Felucca many years afterward, but it wasn't really until the release of Age of Shadows that the playerbase got really scattered. Even Ilshenar, because of its unique rules for placement (none) and recall (at the time, none) and gate (still none) was more of a group or pray-to-god hunting area (this was back before paragons, of course).

While I appreciate some of the things later packs have brought, such as elves, new skills, et cetera... the opening up of tons of space that players could spread themselves across has definitely been detrimental. In honesty, while I understand the technical reasons for keeping areas on new maps, I'd have rather seen the Tokuno isles pop up in among the existing Britannian ones, Malas seen the destruction of maybe some forests to create a limited amount of housing, and more expansions honestly done like Mondain's Legacy (not in limited scale, but in idea) where new dungeons were added, new race, new skill, but the landmass itself didn't expand much at all.

Still, with a large enough playerbase -- which sadly doesn't exist -- even all this area we have presently might not be enough. Them's the days though, but for all the reasons above, if I have to choose from a smaller list, I guess it has to be ML.

The poll does not list my favorite: Third Dawn. Ilshenar provided a lot of great new content - landmasses and dungeons that I still believe are some of the best in the game. In addition, it gave me my first chance to get away from the 2D client...

All of the Expansions offered something I liked... some more than others.

I chose SA because it expanded the underground.

I have to agree with Ra somewhat though much of the lands are too big and with so FEW people it makes it seem far smaller than it is.... though I'll say this... it's pretty small .... And the new Chat does help a lot.

I loved AoS for the housing.... I hated it for messing up armor and stuff though I do like the cool 100% weapons... and I know we did need it in a way...

ML I loved for giving me ELVES... I RPed myself as an elf anyway but to SEE my pointy ears... that was the bomb... though I'm still VERY unhappy with the choices of skin colors and wish there were more. I'd like to see a "whiter" skin tone as well as some browns... to me a woodelf should have wood toned skin... so maybe adding the woodtones to the choices (though not so danged dark) would be nice. And some browns.

And I agree expanding the dungeon system without expanding land and adding more housing area where it wasn't needed was awesome. I'd like to see FAR more expansions or even "mini" expansions like that.

SA offered some sweet and much needed additions like Imbuing... And the Gargoyle race is cool.... though I disagree about making their clothes and weapons separate from everyone else... I'd like to see some more added to the ability to "alter" things... altering should be expanded so we can alter things BACK out of gargoyle to Human or Elf as well as taking the "properties" of an item and altering them into another item of like quality... ie taking a hunters headress and making it something like a circlet or a bandana... but NOT making it a close helm.

Or taking the Inquisitors and making them woodland gloves... Or taking folded steel glasses and making them a circlet or a skullcap... Or taking the Armor of Fortune and making it female studded armor...

As for the High Seas I love the mini expansion.... though it was SERIOUSLY rushed out the door... shame on EA for that... It was a good expansion and the boats are awesome. I think the Elves need a nice galleon or something.

I'd like to see future expansions add things to existing area's. Additions to housing... Additions to Dungeons.... a new City.... But no new landmass's or housing until such time as UO gets a HUGE population boom....

I'd like to see expansions that added new skills... new races... and even new wearables, hairstyles, and faces.

Stratics Veteran

I guess I messed up 2x. My play time is 11 years… and I was confusing that with my establishment that’s turning 10 years old later within the year.

Second… I offered 5 major expansions in my list, not more… because when I think of the 5 major expansions in the last 11 years, that’s what I remember. I know with T2A… was before my time. Third Dawn… may have been before my time. Ilshenar was limited to 3d users… then was opened up with Blackthorn’s Revenge. I remember that expansion that allowed 2d to be used in a land that already existed… but seeing it already existed, I wouldn’t call that a major change.

I mean… we have old timers still playing from beta and all… frankly, this topic was not opened to debate the same old issue about Tram. When I started… I couldn’t believe the complaining, 11 years later… I’m still hearing it. But honestly, would we still have UO today if Tram never came? Or any of these improvements or changes? For a game that has zero advertising on TV or retail space… I see it as a miracle we are still in business. Must be something to it. I always say it's our community… everyone, less real criminals. No one needs them.

By the way… I saw mention of the carpet parts from SA. In actuality, this predates even my 11 years. We have had so many changes in staff over the years, this idea was left on the cutting room floor for a very long time and the BAMB it was included in SA. Long overdue! Frankly, I wish they worked more like gaza mats so they don’t highlight.

Frankly, I always keep a top 10 of 2 lists in my head about UO. Top 10 best improvements… and Top 10 worst changes. The best list is often always too full… the worse is hard to fill, but mostly has to do with support issues.

I'd vote for customizable housing that came with AoS... if it were separate from Malas (Luna specifically) and AoS item system. The bad of Luna & the Item System overpower the good of Customizable Housing.

Stratics VeteranStratics Legend

I really enjoyed when skill was removed as a factor in the game. That whole pre-aos "better player should win" crap deserved to die. I love an item based game, it just makes more sense. Why should a more skilled player win when im paying more money for my suit?

Anyway kudos to the dev team for charging 14.99/month for Diablo 2 Online.

Stratics VeteranStratics Legend

That's my choice too. But I think Mondain's Legacy was the second best expansion--considering we had no choice post-Ren--in the modern era of UO.

1) T2A -- For most, T2A was the golden age of UO PvP.
2) Mondain's Legacy -- Peerless dungeons were a great step forward for organized PvM.
3) Stygian's Abyss -- Imbuing cuts the time needed to grind in half.
4) Third Dawn -- Ilshenar, the most Everquest sounding name they could come up with, and a short lived "3D" client which, in some ways, is still superior to the the EC.
5) High Seas -- Finally made sailing worthwhile. Except no one does Scalis from a ship.
6) Lord Blackthorn's Revenge -- The McFarlane art was nice, and the toy line.
7) Samurai Empire -- The land masses were great but the ninja and bushido templates were so overpowered, even today. Egg bomb stealthers and sampires dumb down the game.
8) Age of Shadows -- Culture shock for most pre-AOS folks, but I "survived" it.
9) Renaissance -- Biggest disappointment for me, a promise to double the land, but they did it by making an exact duplicate of everything. Thought Trammel would be a new facet, instead it was a mirror. Absolutely no reason to use "Fel" ever again.

Stratics VeteranStratics Legend

i started playing about 3 months after Renaissance came out so i never got to experience the glory days of Felucca only, I'm a true pvper at heart and was extremely disappointed when AOS came out with insurance, it was really lame killing people and not being able to loot their entire suit of armor, i used to love using moonstones to go between tram and fel too, really wish i started UO from day 1 or at least t2a but noooooo i had to start after tram came out.... what a shame, the things i could have accomplished.... from 13 1/2 years ago to today, the game went from an extremely hardcore rated M game where u could cut up players bodies after you killed them, to an extremely carebear game where people can avoid pvp all together by staying in tram and only losing a little bit of gold if they get killed by a player and its rated teen, the game is in easy mode now

I personally like a challenge, i loved having to use regs to cast before lrc came out, i loved risking armor and weapons in pvp every time, i loved having to buy a new horse every time it died because bonding didn't exist, i loved when tamers had 7 white wyrms running around behind them.... those things alone should be enough reason for EA to make a classic shard

i think high seas would have been awesome had it come out after T2A came out, imagine how cool boat pvp would have been back in the day with cannons and all

Stratics VeteranStratics Legend

UO:Ren saved the game from dying quickly due to lack of players because the PK crowd had been driving them from the game. It was only a hunting ground for the PKers to relentlessly ruin the fun of non-PKers until they were leaving in droves.

2TA was very exciting when it happened but compared to anything on the list it was just so -so.All of them have been great it's hard to vote on just one well high seas is a bit lower than the others but it's just a booster not a full expansion.

Stratics VeteranStratics Legend

High Seas was the worst addition inflicted on this game since AoS. I have no plans to buy any more expansions until the following one has been released and I know what collection of garbage the prior one is going to contaminate my accounts with.

I wish they would produce a booster pack that would scrape the High Seas booster off an account. It would likely sell well. :bowdown:

Stratics Veteran

Age of shadows, but my fav recent is high seas for the pirating and boat content. Its still a half finished product though and would still like some added content ( updated / added quests , more challenges , boat customizing...) But i wont get my hopes up...

Stratics Veteran

UO:Ren saved the game from dying quickly due to lack of players because the PK crowd had been driving them from the game. It was only a hunting ground for the PKers to relentlessly ruin the fun of non-PKers until they were leaving in droves.

The poll does not list my favorite: Third Dawn. Ilshenar provided a lot of great new content - landmasses and dungeons that I still believe are some of the best in the game. In addition, it gave me my first chance to get away from the 2D client...

Click to expand...

This!

Since it wasnt present i voted SA. I had a great time when ishtar was 3d only! While everyone else was fighting over the blood ele in shame I had ishtar to myself! Then paragons were introduced and I left ishtar for a long while.

I Like the imbueing and flying is great even if it does limit the char to the point of relegating them to crafting chars only.

That said I did have a great love of the game pre AoS. I found my 1st X bow of paralyzing and man I was hooked! The vendor system and the economy were engaging to say the least and just as AoS showed up that really came to a head. So really I have to agree with the T2A being the biggest and best change to the game even though I relate it to the facet split. I remember never going to trammel untill i thought the game was over and using a moonstone and to my surprise I find out the game was very populated still.

Stratics VeteranStratics Legend

High Seas was a fun booster for me. I am still fishing for many of the legendary fish. But SA is a tough act to follow. SA was put together by one of the best dev teams UO has ever seen. They did their homework, tested throughly and interacted heavily with the players. The release introduced loads of content and had very few bugs. SA also left me eating my words. I thought imbuing was going to be a total flop and it ended up a great success.

I think High Seas was a great release too though. The boats are a breakthrough and to me they look beautiful. Fishing got a wonderful boost. Pirate hunting was a blast and scalis fights are fun.

Though the players have wanted more ocean based content for a long time, the fish monger quests exposed another old issue: Crossing server lines does wonky things to clients. And the monger quests are a mini-game optimized through server hoping.

I havent decided about fishing yet. I have a legendary fisherman now and it was a lot of effort to get there through quests. I love the fish pie addition. The rare fish required to make them aren't that hard to catch. I think the pie buffs should last much longer than five minutes. I'd like to see normal last 30 min and exceptional last 1 hour. Though I would like to see more content added for cooking overall.

High Seas kind of took me back in time in UO. Probably because I used to sail around a lot in the early days. My opinion is that High Seas touches on the more humble aspects of the game. Exploring it has a more intrinsic value to me than most other content released. But SA was rock solid and filled the painful gaps AoS created in focusing on obtaining better items.

Stratics Veteran

There is so much I agree with in so many of these posts… I don’t even know where to start.

As I said… and as always, “something for everyone!” What really blows my mind is that so few people actually explore, as I said. If you love super dungeons… we have had a few for a long time. Some are totally hidden, some are quite easy to find, most of those are in Ilsh. If anyone knew… there is a really nasty over-populated dungeon hidden in the Savage huts on the far side of the swamp near Destard. Dungeons are not my thing. That’s why I don’t like “Stygian Abyss”. It seems the whole land is one big dungeon. I still can't figure out why we can't access that full 1/3 landmass on the west side of the mainland. Nothing in the gargoyle theme I like… and they didn’t even bother to name the walls or floors or anything along those lines. The barred doors rock, though. hehe

I mean… each really has it's high and low-points, different to everyone. “Age of Shadows” for example, for me… best changes of all times, the pink vendor rental contracts! As a community vendor mall owner, I couldn’t even guess how many pointless hours I wasted waiting for a game master to show up and remove an abandoned vendor. Then… we got Luna… the number 1 worst item on that list. The grand trailer park of Malas… I still don’t know why there is so much nice flat green land that is inaccessible for house placement and has no spawn, no adventures… otherwise useless.

For “Samurai Empire” I think the best work was put into the house tiles. Past that… they seamed to have forgotten that people may want to dye clothing, so it was lousy for anything. Too dark, naturally. The monsters too hard, the land few use it. We had to wait for “Mondain’s Legacy” for the big dogs… to fight those monsters. Then the super dragons.

What I really can't figure out is “High Seas”. The only thing I like about it is the NPC ship hunting… and currently, the manic/spastic ship movements have really ruined the fun. This after a horrid bug you couldn’t damage the ships… and even now, you can corner one of these ships and still not damage it. All and all… worse of the 5 in my book. Rather have my money back, in all honesty.

Oh… Nordberg... I have ideas for more polls in the future, trust me. Keeping on topic is the challenge for some, but at least for the most part it's all in good spirits and interesting.

Stratics Veteran

What I really can't figure out is “High Seas”. The only thing I like about it is the NPC ship hunting… and currently, the manic/spastic ship movements have really ruined the fun. This after a horrid bug you couldn’t damage the ships… and even now, you can corner one of these ships and still not damage it. All and all… worse of the 5 in my book. Rather have my money back, in all honesty.

.

Click to expand...

I have over 300 sorties against merchants and pirates, and i can assure you that the damage bug has been fixed for months now. If your not damaging it, thats probably because you're not hitting it!

And to my BIG surprise, it seems they have fixed the unrepairable Orc ships. I kept the 2 i had as deco and, with the lost ship ¨event¨ of the past weeks, decided i would deploy them just to see if i could repair them. And would you know, both deployed in mint condish

My only problem with pirating now is the lack of depth. Needs more quests, foes , loot...as i said earlier.

My favorites:
1. T2A
2. Stygian Abyss
AOS was both my favorite and least favorite addition. AOS sucked big time because it made the game item-based and took out all the risk vs. reward and the danger of the game. It turned UO into a second rate Diablo 2 clone. But it did bring us customizable housing. If they hadn't royally screwed up the game mechanics and made it a paid version of Diablo, I would have voted AOS for the awesome custom housing and great looking new weapons and stuff. Plus, Paladin and Necromancers were a good idea, if they just hadn't screwed up the skill system with power scrolls just before AOS came out, and made the new skills uber powerful for several months.

Stratics Veteran

I'd have to vote for Age of Shadows. Yeah it completely changed everything, but it also added a lot of great things such as custom housing which is one of the best things in this game. Also necromancy which is great for my "evil" character.

Fact is, despite the negatives AoS added such as signifacntly hurting PvP thieves (which is my main character), it was going to happen sooner or later. If not in AoS then it would have been in the next expansion.

Stratics Veteran

UO:Ren saved the game from dying quickly due to lack of players because the PK crowd had been driving them from the game. It was only a hunting ground for the PKers to relentlessly ruin the fun of non-PKers until they were leaving in droves.

Thanks to UO:Ren, I've had this game to play all these years.

Viva UO:Ren!!!

Click to expand...

I was going to say AOS and I voted for it, but now I have to reconsider. If it weren't for UO:Renaissance, I would have stopped playing UO 11 years ago.

Stratics is the oldest continually running MMORPG Fansite on the Internet. Founded in 1997 Stratics has served the Ultima Online Community for 18 years. We strive to provide the most complete social experience for Ultima Online players.